Recent Highlights
2023 Tom Leon Award Winners
Thanks to the continued generosity of Connie Leon and the Leon Family, four students again received the 2023 Tom Leon Student Bursary, valued at $5,000 each: Karissa Cruz from Mary Ward, Tristan Robles from Neil McNeil, Kayla Siriban from Francis Libermann and Paulina Sieczka from Michael Power-St Joseph. These bursaries were presented at the Toronto Catholic District School Board year-end Mass on June 22nd. Keep an eye out this June 2024 for this year’s winners.
2023 Indigenous Bursary Winner
2023 winner of the AFL Student Bursary for Indigenous Youth is Christopher Canning from St Joan of Arc Catholic Academy. This bursary, valued at $5,000 is funded jointly by the AFL and the TCDSB’s Equity, Diversity and Indigenous Education Department. Keep an eye out this June 2024 for this year’s winners.
A Team Believe Initiative
16 A teams were involved from across the TCDSB in this year’s 2024 A Team Believe Initiative. Each team worked through a number of assignments and online training sessions on the road to coming up with ideas for projects/ initiatives in response to identified needs in their schools. These student leaders blew us away at pitch day on February 23rd.
All teams received $1,000 to help them initiate their projects and they are all winners in our books. The top three Marshall McLuhan-1st, Loretto College-2nd and Neil McNeil-3rd walked away with an additional $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000 respectively. Congratulations to all the angels who made this year’s A Team Believe initiative a tremendous success.
2024 Marlies Day
Close to 7,000 students were on hand to cheer on the Toronto Marlies to victory at the annual TCDSB-AFLMarlies School Day Game on March 6th. AFL is grateful to MLSE (the Marlies) for donating more than $21,000 to help us support urgent student needs.
Toonies for Tummies Event
AFL was pleased to support the Ontario launch event for the annual Toonies for Tummies campaign. Participating grocery stores and corporate sponsors help to raise funds annually through the campaign initiated by the Grocery Foundation more than a decade ago. AFL appreciates their support and partnership in the effort to fight hunger by supporting Student Nutrition Programs in schools across Toronto. This year’s event was held at St. Augustine Catholic School in North York, with 90 volunteers helping to serve a nutritious breakfast to each and every student at the school. These included AFL’s own Chair Don Walker, and TCDSB officials Director Dr Brendan Browne, Chair Nancy Crawford, Trustee Ida LiPreti and Executive Superintendent Shawna Campbell.
Gala
It’s been four years since our last Gala, and we were more than delighted to welcome over 450 sponsors and guests (including over 40 students and nutrition program volunteers) to celebrate the start of the holiday season with us at a new venue, Chateau Le Jardin. We are truly grateful for the incredible generosity of our sponsors and donors, and all who participated in the raffle and auction, which helped us raise record funds to support student needs. We are particularly grateful to MayStar, Poetry Living and AEC Group for donating tables so that some of our amazing SNP volunteers and student leaders could attend. Check out a few of the highlights below:
Nutrition Month Winners
It takes a village to raise a child, and in our schools, it also takes the tireless efforts of dedicated volunteers to ensure that all students receive nutritious meals and snacks through our Student Nutrition Programs. Our immense gratitude goes out to all of our school administrators, SNP coordinators and other volunteers for their commitment to student health and well-being.
For the third year, we held a random draw from among the many schools who submitted photos and stories about their incredible SNP volunteers during Nutriton Month in March, and we visited the winning schools during Volunteer Month in April to present these individuals with a certificate of appreciation and a gift as a token of our thanks. Congratulations to this year’s winners:
Laura and Shawna (Francis Libermann CHS), Sandra (St. Maurice CS), Nada (St Jane Frances CS).
